The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move

Sonia Shah has written quite a thought-provoking book that to me provides a consistent look across historical and current philosophies involving "change" and "run" (keep status quo), as well as, the inevitable future migrations brought about by anthropogenic impact.An example of the "run" (keeping things orderly and the same) philosophy is highlighted by the works of Carl Linnaeus who developed "Systema Naturae" and ordered by Louis XV in 1774 as official policy and adopted by western culture and the Roman Catholic Church. The focusing on categorizing differences in plants, animals, and people from different geographies as "native" or "alien/foreigners" carries forward to today. Darwin's theories of natural evolution and "change" lost out to Linnaeus's theories of stasis and the inevitable move towards the scarcity and redistribution fears of "us" versus "them". It also served as the "scientific" theory used in public policies in the USA to stop miscegenation, the promotion of eugenics, and other sordid policies to protect empire and religion.An example of anthropogenic impact exacerbating pain caused change is seen in the causes of the Syrian civil war and the resulting mass migrations since 2010 across Europe, the ME, and Africa. During the years 1971 - 2000 while dictator Haffez al-Assad was in power he promoted policies through subsidies to increase food production at the expense of unsustainable ground water depletion. Starting in 2010 when his son Bashar al-Assad came to power subsidies to rural areas were cut even during years of record multi-year (2007-2010) drought, rising surface temperatures, and failed water & agricultural policies, further destabilizing the rural communities. This caused 1.5M rural Syrians to migrate to the cities on top of the 1.5M Iraqi refugees. While urban population growth between 2002 - 2010 was 50% the political regime failed to protect the populace and served only themselves. This laid the ground for civil unrest, followed by civil war, followed by mass migration destabilizing Europe, the ME, and Africa.There are many wonderful examples throughout Shah's book regarding the the history of natural movement and change of plants, animals and humans but the lessons I drew from her book come back to:a) the competing philosophies of "change" (and evolution), versus "run" (and category driven stasis) first documented in 500 BCE (Heraclitus versus Parmenides) looks to be with us throughout our human experience. Contemporary DNA analysis shows plants, animals, and humans migrate globally and conclusively shows humans are of one race. Our outward appearances driven by geographic environmental conditions triggering variations in gene expression (e.g. skin color) during methylation processes. This relatively new knowledge will not easily change hard to displace beliefs driven by empire and religious xenophobia and where the line is drawn between insiders and outsiders (aliens).b) anthropogenic impacts will be the source of future south to north migrations, potentially on a massive scale, that our political leaders manipulate the concerns for self-serving purposes and for which our populations are not prepared short of conflict.One final thought I have is related to the "Migration Ratio" and the threshold (tipping point) that will drive change. As droughts grow longer, storms get stronger, and the climate becomes hotter and more chaotic, more of us will face the time we have remaining to be greater than the period of stability (climate, political, religion, civil society) we can expect from the place we live. As this ratio becomes greater than "1" for us as individuals or as societies this will cause the pain that will serve as a prompt for considering change and movement to areas of perceived improvement.

Although I consider myself to be a very open-minded person, this book opened my mind to a viewpoint I had not previously pondered. First of all, migration is not only natural for many if not most plants and animals on the planet (including humans), but it is even necessary for the survival and thriving of those plants and animals. Obviously this has important implications for one's worldview as it pertains to not only conservation, but also to human migration including the plight of refugees. The second major theme of this book is that the importance of migration for all of these plants and animals (again including humans) has been over-looked throughout recorded history, and in some cases even directly opposed by specific scientific and political movements. The author does an excellent job of weaving these 2 major themes together in the book: 1) migration is normal, and 2) the normalcy of migration has not been understood or appreciated until very recently. The writing is wonderful throughout.Concerning criticisms, I read another review which criticizes the title and the brief description. The reviewer states that the book does not directly address the coming migration that will be caused by global climate change. I think this is a fair criticism, as the book does not delve into specific predictions for what that migration might be like, or what might need to be done to handle that. But the book accomplishes something more important, though somewhat subtle. It lays the groundwork for understanding migration, and in so doing allows the reader to be a more informed participant in the discussions about climate changed-induced migrations that are bound to become more frequent in the coming years.In summary, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Great book, timely book. Lots of reviews of movement of humans, animals, fish, birds, insects. The realization that migration has been and is an entirely necessary thing. And that very little was known for centuries. The academics were all taken in with a view that God stuck Norwegians in Norway and Germans in Germany. There was no data about mass migrations, until very recently. Now with high accuracy GPS we, as humans, actually know real data. There were many wonderful examples. One which I found most funny was that most of the elephants placed in some elephant reserve in Africa spent most of their time outside the reserve. And that all cities are over run by animals, say wolves, that live among us but are not seen. And that human migration has been much the thing from the first. And that humans did leave Africa early on, but they go on with other humans living in Europe. and then some returned to Africa, but carrying genes from Europe. And that almost always, a mass migration results in prosperity and growth in the place the migrants move into. And, of course, stopping migration has always turned out like blocking the flow of a river. The planet today is the result of historic and continuing migrations, and every thing we know today is largely the result of people, birds, animals, fish moving around. So, a very good read, and a good explanation of where we are today, and how we got where we are today. Good read. Well documented.

I was amazed by the clarity and content of this discussion of movement of people, animals, insects, and plants which prepared the reader for a meaningful discussion of immigration of people between countries. Changed my whole understanding of immigration and made dramatically apparent how inhumane and horrific treatment of immigrants in many countries is needlessly sadistic and destructive. I highly recommend this book.

A great way to be aware of how old science’s dogmas, such as racism, are nowadays still present in our society and policy. A journey to understand that at the end, we are all humans, and that the true difference between each of us, is the side of the Border you were lucky to born

Great scientific presentation and wonderful read, makes also great gift for my uncle, a surgeon.

I began to read the book, but things happened, so I had to stop,